Madeline Albright on Kosovo: 'What we did there was not legal, but it was right'

Former Secretary of State Madeleine Albright told NPR Thursday that the U.S.'s actions during the Kosovo crisis was illegal according to international law but still the right thing to do. (AP/Seth Wenig)

Former Secretary of State Madeleine Albright told NPR Thursday that the U.S.'s actions during the Kosovo crisis, including bombing the area without sanction from the United Nations, was illegal according to international law but still the right thing to do.

President Bill Clinton ordered the bombing of Kosovo in 1999 in an attempt to stop "brutality" by Serbian forces against the Albanian Kosovars.

The NPR segment discussed the parallels between that and the current crisis with Syria. Asked by the host under what scenario the U.S. could go ahead with a military strike without U.N. Security Council approval and still call it "legal," Albright replied:

Well, I think that there are any number of different ways. Let me go back on something when you say, "Is it legal?" Frankly, again, to go back to Kosovo, kind of the system said that what we did there was not legal, but it was right. I have always believed that we are better off doing something multilaterally than unilaterally. But there are other ways to figure this out and get it out of the cul-de-sac of the (UN) Security Council.